Frederick City Sustainability Workshop – February 24, 2026
Frederick City Sustainability Workshop – February 24, 2026
The Frederick City Council held a workshop on February 24, 2026, focusing on the city's sustainability efforts and the environmental impacts of data centers. Sustainability Manager Jenny Willoughby presented the city's annual sustainability report, followed by a presentation from Karen Cannon, Executive Director of Mobilize Frederick, on data center resource impacts. The meeting included council member questions, public comments, and a discussion of state-level policies.
Consent Calendar
- The council approved the minutes from the previous meeting by a voice vote (all in favor).
Discussion Items
- Sustainability Annual Report (18-month period): Jenny Willoughby presented the report highlighting volunteer impact, energy sector shifts (street lights decreased from 25% to 15% of energy use since 2013 due to LED conversions), composting growth (approximately 1,900 households, steady 44 pounds per household per month, 1.5% month-over-month growth), and upcoming projects including a climate dashboard (planned launch end of June), a tree canopy assessment (starting July 1, FY27), and a B City certification application. She noted that the city has 30 electric vehicle charging stations, with 12 in garages (Blink) and the rest (Potomac Edison) at various locations. The city purchases 100% wind RECs from Texas, with a planned shift to community solar (40% to Maryland RECs). Willoughby reported that the plastic bag ban is complaint-driven and rarely enforced, and that expanding a bottle bill at the city level would be difficult without state action.
- Data Center Environmental Impacts: Karen Cannon, co-chair of the county data center work group, described potential impacts of data centers on water, noise, emissions, vibrations, and electricity. She noted that Rowan data centers are approved for about 440,000 gallons per day each, using up the 1.2 million gallons per day allocation on the Quantum Frederick site. Noise recommendations suggest keeping levels below 55 decibels at 300 feet (equivalent to a babbling brook). To date, no data center in the county has specified Tier 4 backup generators; instead, Tier 2 generators with catalytic converters are being used. Cannon stated that electricity rates are already high due to data centers, and that the state's climate goals are at risk without stricter regulations. She and Willoughby emphasized that the city cannot regulate electricity, but can require power purchase agreements or “bring your own new clean energy” (BYONCE).
- Water Study & Resource Constraints: Willoughby noted the city is in a severe drought (90% of Potomac watershed) and that a water resources study is underway (managed by DPW, completion date uncertain). The previous water report was done before her tenure, and she will obtain it. Councilmembers asked about water quality and the broader impact of all new development on water resources.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Kevin Sellner (Fifth Street resident, works with Karen Cannon and Jenny Willoughby) highlighted the massive scale of diesel generators (locomotive engines, housed in 53-foot containers), concerns about diesel fuel and biocides in cooling water, and respiratory distress complaints from Adamstown residents. He urged the city to obtain data from county air quality monitors near Adamstown.
Key Outcomes
- Councilmembers requested a copy of the previous water resources study, data from county air quality monitors near Adamstown, and a timeline for the current water study.
- The council will meet with state delegation on Thursday to discuss state legislation, including potential bottle bills and data center regulations.
- Councilmember Hempel asked about expanding tree canopy through HOA open spaces; Willoughby suggested targeting large mowed areas without utility conflicts.
- The meeting adjourned without any formal votes beyond the consent agenda.
Meeting Transcript
Thank you. We'll start with approval of the minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes? I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Great. Thank you. So at our workshop, we have two agenda items. And uh if our manager of sustainability, Jenny could share with us your report, that would be great. Good afternoon, council members. Jenny Willoughby, sustainability manager for the city. So right in front of you and on the screen is our annual report for uh we do it actually for uh an 18-month period. We have a little bit of a um an overlap because of fiscal year and calendar year. Certain things are measured in certain ways. And that we'll go through that. So just basically the table of contents and who we are. We have a sustainability committee, and the committee is quite helpful in a lot of our events and uh with you know with Tree Frederick and also if we need to review plans or anything like that, they go through that committee as well. Uh so navigating this report, one of the things we did this time around was we actually um put some little icons next to certain things so that you'd know what sector they were in because we did it more of a project-based report, and that's why it's so much longer, so that you guys could get an idea of what kinds of projects we do, and then what kinds of projects we also help with uh with other departments. You can read my report. Um so our fiscal impact, just to sort of give you a really quick rundown. Uh we have some grants that we have received, and then in 26 the ones that we've requested. And then the main thing, you know, our volunteer impacts are huge, and I don't think this even counts everybody. Uh we we we do the best that we can with our friends of groups and uh calculating all of our cleanups and things like that. Um so this is our best guesstimate for the fiscal impact of our volunteers throughout the city. And then this year in review is sort of a little infographic which I've produced before just to give you a little snapshot. Um we had 48 outreach events, which is more than we had the previous year. Um the main things for energy. Um we did go as our sectors shifted. We we measure our electricity overall, but we also measure it by sector. And when we started this in 2013, street lights were 25 percent, and they are now 15 percent. So changing out to LEDs has completely shifted our sector usage around uh our water has increased, but our street lights have decreased. And that was the one thing that we tackled because it was one of the ones that we could actually uh move the needle on, and we have so um canopy. We'll be doing our canopy assessment in um we'll start that July 1, hopefully this year, and we'll be doing that every four years from now on uh to comply with the new state forest conservation regulations. Uh our compost, we're at about 1,900 households now, and we have a steady approximately 44 pounds um per household per month now. We're we used to be ranging from 43 to 47. We're at we've been pretty steady at 44 now, and we have a 1.5 uh month over month growth. So that's pretty it's it's just a steady little growth. It's not a ton, but every once in a while when we put an ad out, we'll see a bump. And we do calculate that we figure out which one things are working and and use that to our advantage. May I ask a question about composting? Yep. Uh we participate in this program. Okay. And I really appreciate it.
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